The Lurker Below
The Lurker Below is the second boss of Serpentshrine Cavern in Coilfang Reservoir. The creature is of a previously unknown type -- its file name is listed as "krakken", although it shares its name with lurkers below. It's the easiest fight in SSC, thus it has gained the nickname "The Loot Below". In order to start the fight, raid members must fish in the "Strange Pool" (needs 300+ fishing skill). Each cast has a chance to make the lurker come to the surface. The success rate of this ranges from 1-2 attempts up to fishing for 8 minutes straight. Some people claim that hitting the center of the pool has a higher chance to summon the Lurker, but this is not confirmed. Abilities The Lurker *Level : ?? Boss *Type: Beast *Health: 3,800,000 *Melee: Hits tanks for 5-9k in melee *Water Bolt: Only used if no targets are in melee range. 2 sec cast, 9-11k damage, random target *Whirl: Physical aoe to all in melee range. 3-4k damage, 5 yard knockback, 30 sec cooldown. *Geyser: Random attack on random ranged target. 3.5k frost damage AOE (2-3 yards), 10 yard knockback to all affected. *Spout: Every 45 seconds, a water ray starts at the tank, slowly rotating in a random direction for about 370° (~90° per 5 sec). Over 6k damage with a huge knockback (over 30 yards). Submerge: After 120 seconds the Lurker submerges and removes debuffs, adds are summoned (this is Phase 2), after 60 seconds he re-emerges. Phase 2 Adds Six ambushers and three guardians spawn at the start of phase 2. All forms of crowd control work on all adds. Coilfang Guardian: *70k Health *Melee: 6k-7k on cloth *Arcing Smash: 5k-9k damage in a frontal cone *Hamstring: Reduce movement speed by 70% for 10 sec Coilfang Ambusher: *26k Health *Melee: 2k-3k on cloth *Multi-Shot: Ranged attack on up to 3 players for 2-3k damage on cloth Clearing trash / boiling water In order to reach the Lurker, and also during the fight, raid members have to enter the water around the strange pool. In the water there are a lot of Coilfang Frenzys, with a high respawn rate. Fortunately, if all trash mobs on the six platforms around the pool are killed, the water starts to boil, which kills all the fish. The boiling water also causes 500 damage every three seconds on swimmers, but that's much less than what the fish would deal. The water will stop boiling when when the first mobs on the platforms respawn (after about 2 hours). When the first trash mob respawns, all the Coilfang Frenzys will respawn too, even in the middle of a fight. They won't respawn once the Lurker is killed. The groups on the platforms each consist of one Vashj'ir Honor Guard, two Coilfang Shatterers, two Coilfang Priestesses and four Greyheart Technicians. Crowd control the Greyheart Technicians and Coilfang Priestesses, then nuke the Coilfang Shatterers first, followed by the Vashj'ir Honor Guard. The Greyheart Technicians are very weak and can be killed very fast when lacking Crowd control (Rogues can easily take these down). Note: On the third group it is possible to acidentially pull the patrolling Underbog Colossus from the platform to the left by standing too far to the left hand side. Everyone should stay to the right hand side of the platform. Jumping in boiling water Jumping up and down in the boiling water will deal 500 damage on each jump rather than 500 damage every 3 seconds. Rezzing It is possible to use Levitate or Water Walking while rezzing, but the rez targets may quickly die again from the boiling water. A second healer should be ready to immediately get the rezzed players health up again. Positioning The Lurker requires only one one tank, having an off-tank makes it safer. The tank should stand in the inner ring with his back to the pillar (to help prevent the knockbacks). Everybody else should spread out, to minimize collateral damage from geyser. Melee damage dealers should stand as close to the inner edge of the platform as possible, so that the five yard Whirl knockback doesn't drop them into the water. Healers should be placed at the outside limit of the ring so that they can easily step back into the water to avoid Spout. Ranged damage dealers can stand on the outer platforms. Phase 1 The combat starts with the Lurker on the surface. It's rather straightforward tank and spank, except for Spout and Whirl. Aggro is hardly an issue - as long as there are targets in melee range, the Lurker will not attack ranged targets (except for a random Geyser now and then). The Lurker can also be taunted. After two minutes, the Lurker submerges (which also removes all debuffs from him), adds turn up and the second phase starts. 60 seconds later, the Lurker re-emerges and phase one starts again. Spout Spout is the main reason for wipes on this boss, the whole raid has to learn how to avoid it. Boss mods usually give a three second warning, and it's best to immediately jump in the water when the warning comes up. Ranged DPS and Healers can continue to do their job while in the water by swimming a little deeper to gain LOS. After the beam has passed, it's safe to return to the platforms. The tank and everybody close to him need to pay attention - the beam starts at the tank and rotates for a little more than 360°. Each spout is closely followed by a Whirl. Advanced techniques have the melee group run in a circle around the platform to avoid the beam (while still dealing damage). It's also possible to blink through it, or to use Ice Block or Divine Shield. Spout does not affect pets. Whirl The second problem during phase one is Whirl. If the entire melee group is knocked away from the Lurker, he will start to deal severe ranged damage to the raid. Thus a tank needs to avoid the Whirl, and be back in melee range ASAP. Normally, boss mods give a warning before a Whirl is incoming. The best solution is to have the MT jump into the water, closer to the Lurker. In this case, the knockback will bring him back onto the platform, without ever leaving melee range. Alteratively, it's possible to back out of melee range before a Whirl, to quickly move back in right after. To make the fight safer, additional tanks can try to do the same as the MT. Since the Lurker can be taunted it's rather easy to control him once a tank is in melee range. It is possible to have a tank in the water the whole time. This will make him immune to Spout, and he doesn't have to be alert on Whirls. The water will inflict about 380 damage per tick, but the bigger problem is that there will be LoS problems for the healers. To avoid the LOS issue, the MT healers can stay under water too. One shadow priest in their group is enough to keep their health and mana up. When using this technique, everybody must be alert to exit the water during phase 2. Whirl deals only about 1k of damage to pets, and no knockback. Phase 2 Each time the Lurker submerges, he spawns a total of nine adds: two ranged Coilfang Ambushers on each outer platform, and three melee Coilfang Guardians on the inner ring. All these adds can be Crowd Controled. Usually, each platform has one group of the raid assigned to clear the Coilfang Ambushers, while the melee group deals with the Coilfang Guardians. Each of the groups should use CC and kill their adds. When the platform groups are done with their packs, they need to help on the Guardians. The Ambushers can basically be tanked by any class (ofc the more armor the better). There is one dangerous effect to be aware of: If an Ambusher gains aggro on a healer (or damage dealer) on another platform, he will start to evade until the healer comes over onto their island. If the Lurker emerges while an Ambusher is still evading, the Lurker will despawn. Similarly, the Guardians can gain aggro on raid members on other platforms, but they will simply teleport and start attacking in this case. One minute after submerging, the Lurker comes back whether or not all adds are dead. After re-emerging, he starts out with a sequence of Whirl, Spout and another Whirl. It's very difficult to master this while there's an add around. The best bet is to keep the add CC'd until after the sequence (or even longer). Alternate strategy for phase 2 New Coilfang Guardians will spawn on the transition to phase two only to replace dead Guardians from prior spawns. Thus it's possible to keep the Guardians sheeped (or otherwise CC'd) during the whole fight. Of course, Guardians breaking their CC can mean a one-shot death for the mage, followed by the healers in the raid, so it is important to refresh sheep every 15-20 seconds. The mages should also be soulstoned. On top of that, hunters can put a freezing trap on the outer platforms, at the points where the Coilfang Ambushers enter. This way the raid has to deal with at most three mobs at the same time, making the healers' job much easier. Bugs The Lurker can get into a state where he does a constant Spout even though there is no casting bar and he still uses his other abilities. It occurs when the last add dies during a Spout. To not have the bug happen ensure that the final add is killed before or after a Spout, NOT during. This is supposed to be fixed in an upcoming patch. See the blue posts in http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=105971962&pageNo=1&sid=1#0 for more information Another bug is that if there are guardians alive when he comes back up he may despawn (not verified but he definitely despawned shortly after he came back up when guardians were sheeped). Loot Notes External links Category:Bosses Category:Burning Crusade Category:Instance:Serpentshrine Cavern